"Jesus in you… the hope of glory."

see: http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/2009/05/may-love-of-god-shine-upon-you.html

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MAY THE LOVE OF GOD SHINE UPON YOU

These words of Jesus touch my soul: “Be not there­fore anx­ious, say­ing, what shall we eat?  Or what shall we drink?  Or how shall we be clothed?  For after all these things do the Gen­tiles seek” (Matthew 6:31–32).

Jesus is warn­ing about the hea­then ten­dency to worry.  He tells us that worry – over our job, our fam­ily, our future, our sur­vival – is a heathen’s way of liv­ing.  It is the atti­tude of those who have no heav­enly Father.  They do not know God as he desires to be known: as a car­ing, pro­vid­ing, lov­ing Father in heaven.  To all who believe, it is not enough to know God only as the Almighty, the Cre­ator, the Lord of all.  He also wants us to know him as our heav­enly Father. “For your heav­enly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things” (verse 32).

“Take there­fore no thought for tomor­row” (verse 34).  With these plain words, Jesus com­mands us: “Do not give a thought, a sin­gle worry, to what might or might not hap­pen tomor­row.  You can’t change any­thing.  And you can’t help any­thing by wor­ry­ing.  When you do, you’re only doing as the hea­then do.”

Jesus then says, “Seek ye first the king­dom of God and his right­eous­ness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (verse 33).  In other words, we are to go on lov­ing Jesus.  We are to move on, cast­ing all our cares on him.  And we are to rest in his faith­ful­ness.  Our heav­enly Father will see to it that we are sup­plied with all the essen­tial things of life.

I won­der if the angels are baf­fled by all the worry and anx­ious­ness of those who claim to trust in the Lord.  To those celes­tial beings, it must seem insult­ing to God that we worry as if we had no car­ing Father in heaven.  What per­plex­ing ques­tions the angels must ask among themselves:

“Do they not believe the One who loves them?  Did he not tell them he knows about all their needs?  Do they not know the Father sends us to take charge of them in times of dan­ger?  Do they not believe that he who feeds the birds, the fish, the whole ani­mal king­dom will feed and clothe them?  How can they fret and worry when they know God pos­sesses all power, all wealth, and can sup­ply the needs of all cre­ation?  How can they accuse their heav­enly Father of neglect, as if he isn’t true to his Word?”

The birds sing, while we com­plain and speak of fear and anx­i­ety.  The lilies of the field stand tall in their glory, while we wilt and bend before the small­est wind of adver­sity.  The fol­low­ing poem puts it succinctly:

The very birds reprove thee with all their happy song;

the very flow­ers teach thee that fret­ting is a wrong.

“Cheer up,” the spar­row chirpeth.  “Thy Father feedeth me;

think how much he careth, oh lovely child, for thee.”

“Fear not,” the flow­ers whis­per; “since thus he hath arrayed

the but­ter­cup and daisy.  How canst thou be afraid?”

Then don’t you trou­ble, till trou­ble trou­bles you.

You’ll only dou­ble trou­ble, and trou­ble oth­ers too.

You most def­i­nitely have a heav­enly Father.  Trust in him!